Biden the Preferred Dem on China Trade Policy, Chinese State-Owned Firm Says

A Chinese state-owned securities conglomerate singled out Joe Biden for praise as a "rare candidate" who supports trade policies favorable to the country's Communist government, according to a translated copy of a company research report obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

The analysis, drafted by Guotai Junan Securities and posted publicly on its website during the U.S. primaries, identified Biden as the best candidate out of the major Democratic contenders on China trade policy. The report provides a glimpse into Beijing's assessment of Biden and other U.S. political leaders, as well as a list of U.S. states that China perceives as battlegrounds for its national policy interests in the 2020 election.

"Former U.S. vice president Biden, who currently ranks first in the Democratic Party’s approval rating, is a rare candidate who opposes the Sino-U.S. trade friction," said the report. "Biden has expressed his opposition to Sino-US trade frictions on multiple public occasions and believes that ‘all the wrong methods' have been used to deal with Sino-U.S. trade."

Biden, the report continued, was one of "only four Democratic candidates [who] believe that Sino-U.S. relations can complement each other for a win-win situation." The other candidates named were Andrew Yang, Seth Moulton, and Wayne Messam—all long-shot contenders who never hit above single digits in national polling.